Have a haunted Halloween, boils and ghouls! Look out for razor blades...
Showing posts with label it's beginning to look a lot like halloween 2. Show all posts
Showing posts with label it's beginning to look a lot like halloween 2. Show all posts
10.31.2009
10.30.2009
It's Beginning to look a lot like Hallowe'en 2, Part 18 - Night Of The Creeps (1986)
Night Of The Creeps was finally released on DVD this past week which meant i finally got to see this B-horror classic.
And my word, what a fantastic piece of film making on display here. NOTC is one big stew of film references and genres. If you put Star Wars, Night of the Living Dead, Plan 9 From Outer Space, The Big Sleep and just about 1000 other inspirations compiled of the most entertaining elements from the history of cinema, stick that all in a blender and what you would get is Night of the Creeps.
A self conscious b-horror with just the right budget (not too high, not too low) that practically had everything i wanted in a movie. The characters are too much fun, from the cigarette smoking hard drinking Detective Ray Cameron (ripped straight out of the pages of Raymond Chandler) to the unibrow wielding frat boy Steve. The music is also phenomenal, no John Hughes inspired 80's soundtrack to be found here, Barry De Vorzon's signature bad ass synthy ambience is all you need. If you're a fan of The Warriors, then you'll really get a kick out of this soundtrack and in turn the film. Something about De Vorzon's music that gives the films he scores this feeling of being all around bad ass and entertaining.
If you haven't seen this, like i had, i urge you (if you're not a pretentious douchenozzle that is) to pick it up. If you're in the mood to be entertained you won't be dissapointed. Fun, funny, and an all around blast!
P.S. why in the hell after so long of residing in VHS purgatory does the dvd release have such hideous cover art!? gah! The vhs covers were so cool and even the bootleg dvd version was way better.
check it, here's the bootleg:
and here's what we get for waiting:
lame... lame... tres lame.
10.27.2009
10.24.2009
It's beginning to Look a lot like Hallowe'en 2, Part 16 - Zombieland (2009)
Zombieland is a film that doesn't pretend to be something it's not. Whatever ads you may have come across for the picture are an honest depiction of what the film is all about. That's right, just by looking at the poster whatever idea of a film you can muster up from that image is probably pretty close to what you get from Zombieland. It's a helium filled action horror comedy that leaves your brain in those empty moments between end scene and credit scrawl.All the same it's hard to deny the charm of Zombieland, for all its brain dead qualities it doesn't attempt to do anything but entertain you. Whether or not the film accomplishes this depends completely on the viewer. I know some horror buffs who scoffed at this film before and after viewing, and rightfully so. Zombieland is the kind of cinematic experience that should be enjoyed without any expectations. Had i expected to be scared i would have been let down, as the film delivers minimal scares but then again i don't understand why anyone would expect to be scared by a film called "Zombieland".
The film begins amidst a zombie outbreak, the why or how of the hysteria is never fully explained nor does it has to be. This isn't that kind of zombie flick, the zombies here stand for nothing more than flesh bags waiting to meet the end of a sawn-off shotgun. The protagonist here played by Jesse Eisenberg is, oddly enough, playing a redux of his character in Adventureland. Actually, pretending that this film is Adventureland's genre u-turn sequel makes the film all the more entertaining. Eisenberg plays Columbus, a kid from (you guessed it) Columbus traveling across the states to get back to his hometown due to lack of a better idea. On his journey he meets a hummer driving, shotgun wielding, zombie killer extraordinaire Tallahasse (guess where he's from) played perfectly by Woody Harrelson. Together they travel across the country eventually being joined by Wichita (played by the gorgeous Emma Stone) and Little Rock (great turn by Little Miss Sunshine star Abigail Breslin).
One part road movie, one part buddy flick, one part shoot em' up, and two parts zombie survival picture the film moves at an enjoyable pace through its short run time leaving you entertained. I however did feel an urge to consume brains whilst leaving the cinema to curb by hunger for some smarts but all in all quite a fun ride. What made the film for me was an amazing cameo that most definitely is the centerpiece of the film, for those who don't know who it is do yourself a favour and make sure you keep it that way until you see it. For those who had the surprise ruined for them punch the person who told you in the gut for me.Definitely worth checking out, not one that begs to be seen on the big screen but one that begs to be seen with others.
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Halloween 2, part 15: The Gravedancers (2006)
I bought this last year based on a couple of good reviews citing the film as the best of the After Dark Horrorfest series 8 Films to Die For. What? Better than Snoop Dogg's Hood of Horror? Inconceivable! Anyway, the other film in the series that the pundits deemed view-worthy was Nacho Cerda's The Abandoned. Now, I loved Cerda's previous short Aftermath, and was greatly anticipating his first feature film. Unfortunately, the thing fell flat. There were a few good scares along the way, but overall, The Abandoned left me wanting. So, I set The Gravedancers aside, fearing that the punters had misled me yet again, with the halfhearted hope that I'd pop it in one October night and, with expectations fairly low, be pleasantly surprised. And, last night, that's exactly what happened.
The Gravedancers stars Prison Break's Dominic Purcell as Harris, one of three friends who come home for the funeral of their college pal. After spending some time in the local watering hole, Kira, Sid (the other two friends) and Harris congregate after dark in the cemetery to truly celebrate their friend's passing, not to mourn him but to rejoice in a life well-lived. They make the mistake of dancing on a few graves though (hence the title, duh!); baaaad mooooove. In doing so they have desecrated the deceased, who also happened to be "undesirables" in their time on earth, we learn later. So the rest of the film is spent with the three grave dancers dealing with paranormal activities that occur with increasing frequency and violence.
Sounds kinda dumb, and I guess it is, but I'm a sucker for a good ghost story, and I was in the mood for something a bit more lively than one of the classics (The Haunting, The Legend of Hell House, The Innocents, etc, and I like to watch Ghost Story and The Woman In Black around Christmastime for some reason...). The Gravedancers, while not a great film, fit the bill at the time, and for some good spooky fun, you really can't go wrong.
One thing that I though was well-done was how the filmmakers used mainly practical effects, something too rare in horror these days, and relied on CGI for the climax, which, while it would have been incredible if done practically, would have been far too cost-prohibitive to produce.
I don't want to raise expectations on a film like this (I suppose I already have) - that is often the kiss of death - but if you go in not expecting anything earth-shattering, and you can excuse a little wooden acting here and there (beyond the point in a film of this ilk, no?), but instead looking instead for a good little spook show, you'll be more than pleased; I certainly was.
Anyone have any good ghost story film recommendations?
The Gravedancers stars Prison Break's Dominic Purcell as Harris, one of three friends who come home for the funeral of their college pal. After spending some time in the local watering hole, Kira, Sid (the other two friends) and Harris congregate after dark in the cemetery to truly celebrate their friend's passing, not to mourn him but to rejoice in a life well-lived. They make the mistake of dancing on a few graves though (hence the title, duh!); baaaad mooooove. In doing so they have desecrated the deceased, who also happened to be "undesirables" in their time on earth, we learn later. So the rest of the film is spent with the three grave dancers dealing with paranormal activities that occur with increasing frequency and violence.
Sounds kinda dumb, and I guess it is, but I'm a sucker for a good ghost story, and I was in the mood for something a bit more lively than one of the classics (The Haunting, The Legend of Hell House, The Innocents, etc, and I like to watch Ghost Story and The Woman In Black around Christmastime for some reason...). The Gravedancers, while not a great film, fit the bill at the time, and for some good spooky fun, you really can't go wrong.
One thing that I though was well-done was how the filmmakers used mainly practical effects, something too rare in horror these days, and relied on CGI for the climax, which, while it would have been incredible if done practically, would have been far too cost-prohibitive to produce.
I don't want to raise expectations on a film like this (I suppose I already have) - that is often the kiss of death - but if you go in not expecting anything earth-shattering, and you can excuse a little wooden acting here and there (beyond the point in a film of this ilk, no?), but instead looking instead for a good little spook show, you'll be more than pleased; I certainly was.
Anyone have any good ghost story film recommendations?
It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Halloween 2, part 14: The Boxer's Omen (1983)
Wow, what to say about The Boxer's Omen? One of the most mind-bending, visually imaginative and all-together fucked films I've seen in awhile. A simple plot synopsis, though it cannot do the film justice, is necessary to understand what the hell is actually going on.
I've already forgotten the name of Lung Wei Wang's character, but we'll just call him Lung for clarification purposes, and Bolo Yeung, we'll call Bolo. So, Lung's brother is beaten by shady methods in a boxing match with Bolo, and Lung is asked to seek revenge for the now paralyzed brother. He travels from Hong Kong to Thailand to confront Bolo and demand a match to avenge his brother. He is then drawn to a temple that bears a glowing arch that is identical to the one he saw in his dream. There he is informed by the monks that he was chosen by their lama to come to them to free the now near-dead (actually imprisoned by a dark spell) lama from some horrible black magic curse. The almost-dead lama speaks to Lung and tells him that they are twins and that if the lama cannot acheive immortality then Lung too will die. So Lung becomes a monk and sets about training to break the curse and avenge his brother and stay alive. The movie shifts incomprehensibly back and forth between Hong Kong and Thailand, and I could never be sure where they were exactly, as everything looked the saem.
Haha, reading that summary back again, I can't even believe how messed the film is. But the best part? Oh yeah, the best part are the amazing effects, gloriously gory and gruesome and slimy practical and stop motion effects involving the blackest of magics. The lighting is also fantastic and trippy, and shares much with the contrasting primary colour schemes of Argento's Suspiria and Inferno.
I read a review that said if Jodorowsky and Coffin Joe got together and made a martial arts/horror film in Hong Kong, this would be it. I can't think of anything more to say than that is probably the most apt description for The Boxer's Omen. Unlike anything I've seen before, and doubt I'll see anything like it again. We've got a copy in the FBE, and I've already ordered one for myself. WATCH IT! Her's one of my favourite scenes and a good example of the film's complete and utter gonzo zaniness and absolute defiance of logic. Enjoy!
I've already forgotten the name of Lung Wei Wang's character, but we'll just call him Lung for clarification purposes, and Bolo Yeung, we'll call Bolo. So, Lung's brother is beaten by shady methods in a boxing match with Bolo, and Lung is asked to seek revenge for the now paralyzed brother. He travels from Hong Kong to Thailand to confront Bolo and demand a match to avenge his brother. He is then drawn to a temple that bears a glowing arch that is identical to the one he saw in his dream. There he is informed by the monks that he was chosen by their lama to come to them to free the now near-dead (actually imprisoned by a dark spell) lama from some horrible black magic curse. The almost-dead lama speaks to Lung and tells him that they are twins and that if the lama cannot acheive immortality then Lung too will die. So Lung becomes a monk and sets about training to break the curse and avenge his brother and stay alive. The movie shifts incomprehensibly back and forth between Hong Kong and Thailand, and I could never be sure where they were exactly, as everything looked the saem.
Haha, reading that summary back again, I can't even believe how messed the film is. But the best part? Oh yeah, the best part are the amazing effects, gloriously gory and gruesome and slimy practical and stop motion effects involving the blackest of magics. The lighting is also fantastic and trippy, and shares much with the contrasting primary colour schemes of Argento's Suspiria and Inferno.
I read a review that said if Jodorowsky and Coffin Joe got together and made a martial arts/horror film in Hong Kong, this would be it. I can't think of anything more to say than that is probably the most apt description for The Boxer's Omen. Unlike anything I've seen before, and doubt I'll see anything like it again. We've got a copy in the FBE, and I've already ordered one for myself. WATCH IT! Her's one of my favourite scenes and a good example of the film's complete and utter gonzo zaniness and absolute defiance of logic. Enjoy!
10.23.2009
It's beginning to look ....Part 3 Section 13 Sub-Entry B1.....oh forget it.
I watched Pontypool tonight and loved it. I've got nothing to add to Kadas's excellent review from a few months ago but thought with Halloween coming up, it might have slipped off a few other people's radar too.
http://thefilmbuffs.blogspot.com/2009/06/pontypool-pontypool-pontypool-pontypool.html
…..links to Kris's review.
Most definitely worth a look if you missed it.
One thing..... Only the French would broadcast a warning (in French) and leave the "Do Not Translate This Message" warning until the final sentence.
Idiots....
S
http://thefilmbuffs.blogspot.com/2009/06/pontypool-pontypool-pontypool-pontypool.html
…..links to Kris's review.
Most definitely worth a look if you missed it.
One thing..... Only the French would broadcast a warning (in French) and leave the "Do Not Translate This Message" warning until the final sentence.
Idiots....
S
10.21.2009
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Halloween 2, part 12: Let's Scare Jessica To Death (1971)
Released in 1971, a year before Robert Altman's Images, John Hancock's (seriously) Let's Scare Jessica To Death is an anomalous landmark in the horror canon.
Based on Gothic horror author Sheridan Le Fanu's work "Carmilla", and starring TV (and later the underrated Exorcist III) vet Zohra Lampert, LSJTD has a simple plot: Jessica has recently spent six months under psychiatric care/evaluation in New York for an unknown "illness", and now, supposedly cured, is moving out to the country upstate, along with her husband Duncan and their good friend Woody. They are going to live in an old farmhouse and work the adjoining orchard, get back to the land, for the good of Jessica's mental state. When they arrive in town, they are greeted less than hospitably by some old men, but things cheer up as they arrive at the house. However, they soon find they are not alone here; living in the home is a woman, Emily, who has been squatting there for some time. She is very friendly though, and all four of the characters get along quite well. After a little bit of familiarizing, and a fledgling romance with Woody, Emily is asked to stay with the trio. And that's pretty much it. But as the story unfolds, we see that Jessica is indeed not well - she hears voices, her paranoia grows, and a mysterious girl in white appears at random times, seemingly to warn Jessica of something.
As Jessica's mind begins to fragment, Emily wedges herself between Jessica and Duncan, even treating the latter to some late night carnality one midnight. And as things fall apart, Jessica starts to wonder if she is in fact mad, or if something more sinister is at play. Even the somewhat revelatory ending is still left open to interpretation precisely because of Jessica's mental state. "Dreams or nightmares? Madness or sanity?", she asks herself in the film's bookending scene.
The score is excellent; throbbing electronic pulses mix with pastoral, folky acoustic guitar, and provide an aural backdrop for the dual sides of Jessica.
All actors are quietly superb in their roles, and the film has that early '70s no-nonsense, matter-of-fact realism that was prevalent in almost all dramas then, and is sorely missing from much of today's cinema. Lampert, especially, is wonderfully cast in a difficult role - she comes off at times lucid, at times shattered, simple; at times radiant, at times haggard.
The ambiguity of the film is its great strength and has given it its staying power, I believe. We are never told one way or the other whether or not Jessica has completely slipped into a fantasy world facilitated by a broken mind, or if in fact the demons that haunt her are real. Laced with an undercurrent of dark sexuality and misogyny, LSJTD belies its often unadorned exterior. I've watched this three times in the last year and a half or so, and find something new with each viewing. We feel the very real sense that Jessica's fragile mental state could at any moment teeter slightly, plunging her into madness forever.
Another thing that puzzles me about the film is its title, specifically the "Let's" part. "Let's" meaning "let us"...so who are the "us"? The creepy old men in town? Duncan, Woody, and Emily, playing some cruel and elaborate prank on Jessica? Or are they the whispers inside Jessica's head, conspiring to remove her from this world once and for all? Hmmm, certainly something to ponder...
Highly recommended viewing for this time of year, or anytime, for that matter - a worthwhile watch, all these years later.
Based on Gothic horror author Sheridan Le Fanu's work "Carmilla", and starring TV (and later the underrated Exorcist III) vet Zohra Lampert, LSJTD has a simple plot: Jessica has recently spent six months under psychiatric care/evaluation in New York for an unknown "illness", and now, supposedly cured, is moving out to the country upstate, along with her husband Duncan and their good friend Woody. They are going to live in an old farmhouse and work the adjoining orchard, get back to the land, for the good of Jessica's mental state. When they arrive in town, they are greeted less than hospitably by some old men, but things cheer up as they arrive at the house. However, they soon find they are not alone here; living in the home is a woman, Emily, who has been squatting there for some time. She is very friendly though, and all four of the characters get along quite well. After a little bit of familiarizing, and a fledgling romance with Woody, Emily is asked to stay with the trio. And that's pretty much it. But as the story unfolds, we see that Jessica is indeed not well - she hears voices, her paranoia grows, and a mysterious girl in white appears at random times, seemingly to warn Jessica of something.
As Jessica's mind begins to fragment, Emily wedges herself between Jessica and Duncan, even treating the latter to some late night carnality one midnight. And as things fall apart, Jessica starts to wonder if she is in fact mad, or if something more sinister is at play. Even the somewhat revelatory ending is still left open to interpretation precisely because of Jessica's mental state. "Dreams or nightmares? Madness or sanity?", she asks herself in the film's bookending scene.
The score is excellent; throbbing electronic pulses mix with pastoral, folky acoustic guitar, and provide an aural backdrop for the dual sides of Jessica.
All actors are quietly superb in their roles, and the film has that early '70s no-nonsense, matter-of-fact realism that was prevalent in almost all dramas then, and is sorely missing from much of today's cinema. Lampert, especially, is wonderfully cast in a difficult role - she comes off at times lucid, at times shattered, simple; at times radiant, at times haggard.
The ambiguity of the film is its great strength and has given it its staying power, I believe. We are never told one way or the other whether or not Jessica has completely slipped into a fantasy world facilitated by a broken mind, or if in fact the demons that haunt her are real. Laced with an undercurrent of dark sexuality and misogyny, LSJTD belies its often unadorned exterior. I've watched this three times in the last year and a half or so, and find something new with each viewing. We feel the very real sense that Jessica's fragile mental state could at any moment teeter slightly, plunging her into madness forever.
Another thing that puzzles me about the film is its title, specifically the "Let's" part. "Let's" meaning "let us"...so who are the "us"? The creepy old men in town? Duncan, Woody, and Emily, playing some cruel and elaborate prank on Jessica? Or are they the whispers inside Jessica's head, conspiring to remove her from this world once and for all? Hmmm, certainly something to ponder...
Highly recommended viewing for this time of year, or anytime, for that matter - a worthwhile watch, all these years later.
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Halloween 2, part 11: The Children (2008)
Fiends, I just couldn't resist a film with the tagline: "You brought them into this world...Now they will take you out". Awesome! The acclaimed offspring-horror was released on DVD yesterday and well, it's kinda sorta, meh.
The setup is cool - sister one takes her family to deep into the British countryside to meet up at the lavish home of sister two and her family, in which they will celebrate Christmas together. However, one of the kids (who looks and acts disturbingly like my nephew Luke) gets sick and slowly a mysterious virus seems to pervade the bodies of each of the 4 (or is it 5?) kids at the home. This isn't a normal virus, though, and turns each child into a flesh and blood version of Chucky, with the murderous impulses carried out upon various family members.
Certain scenes are clearly designed to show the difficulty of a parent looking upon their child as anything but an angel, and the toughness in making that leap from nurturing to harming. I dunno, I guess you have to have kids for this to take effect, cause I wanted to smash some skulls during the entire thing - and even before the virus took hold. There were some eerie scenes, for sure, and I found the first 20 minutes or so to be effective at setting up realistic relationships and characterizations, and hinting ever so slightly at a uneasy sense of menace that might just be lurking. Beyond that, the plot gets old fast, and the tension that is supposed to be built doesn't really go anywhere.
On the technical side of things, there are a few very intriguing and creative shots in the film, and a couple convincing gore effects as well, though we all know that a couple decent effects do not a good movie make.
If you want creepy kid horror, check out The Bad Seed, The Innocents, Alice, Sweet Alice, The Brood, The Orphanage (Larry Fessenden's directing an American remake, due out in 2011! Speaking of which, who has my copy of Habit?), even Them (ooops, I guess I just gave away that ending, didn't I?), or Roncesvalles at 3:45 pm on a school day (didn't think I was going to let so obvious a reference slip by unmentioned, did you?), among many others. As it stands, The Children is less than the sum of its (at times, quite strong) parts. Too bad, it showed so much promise....
The setup is cool - sister one takes her family to deep into the British countryside to meet up at the lavish home of sister two and her family, in which they will celebrate Christmas together. However, one of the kids (who looks and acts disturbingly like my nephew Luke) gets sick and slowly a mysterious virus seems to pervade the bodies of each of the 4 (or is it 5?) kids at the home. This isn't a normal virus, though, and turns each child into a flesh and blood version of Chucky, with the murderous impulses carried out upon various family members.
Certain scenes are clearly designed to show the difficulty of a parent looking upon their child as anything but an angel, and the toughness in making that leap from nurturing to harming. I dunno, I guess you have to have kids for this to take effect, cause I wanted to smash some skulls during the entire thing - and even before the virus took hold. There were some eerie scenes, for sure, and I found the first 20 minutes or so to be effective at setting up realistic relationships and characterizations, and hinting ever so slightly at a uneasy sense of menace that might just be lurking. Beyond that, the plot gets old fast, and the tension that is supposed to be built doesn't really go anywhere.
On the technical side of things, there are a few very intriguing and creative shots in the film, and a couple convincing gore effects as well, though we all know that a couple decent effects do not a good movie make.
If you want creepy kid horror, check out The Bad Seed, The Innocents, Alice, Sweet Alice, The Brood, The Orphanage (Larry Fessenden's directing an American remake, due out in 2011! Speaking of which, who has my copy of Habit?), even Them (ooops, I guess I just gave away that ending, didn't I?), or Roncesvalles at 3:45 pm on a school day (didn't think I was going to let so obvious a reference slip by unmentioned, did you?), among many others. As it stands, The Children is less than the sum of its (at times, quite strong) parts. Too bad, it showed so much promise....
It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Halloween 2, part 10: Student Bodies (1981)
"Before there was SCREAM, there was...STUDENT BODIES"
So goes the line on the front of the DVD box. Now, I'm not one of those who believe that Scream killed horror, or at least serious horror. I love Scream; even moreso what is essentially its pilot run in Wes Craven's earlier film New Nightmare. So I was intrigued by Student Bodies, this film from 1981 that claimed to be the original Scream. In fact, it is much closer in spirit to Airplane, The Naked Gun, or the Scary Movie series, and surprisingly funny at that.
Not much of a horror, Student Bodies uses the late '70s/early '80s genre leanings to maximum comic effect; the opening scene is a medium shot of a house exterior with the word "Halloween" appearing at the bottom of the screen....cue creepy music. And then, the screen goes black. The same exterior appears a second later, the title at the bottom of the screen now says "Friday the 13th"...cue creepy music. Again, fade to black. A second later, same shot, but the title now says "Jamie Lee Curtis' Birthday"...cue creepy music. Ha! Then we go inside, where a scene very similar to the opening of Scream takes place, a girl answers the phone, heavy breathing ensues, repeat... Then she hears a weird noise and goes outside to check on it, but when she comes back in, she leaves the door unlocked. The camera zooms in on this soon-to-be fatal error and the word "UNLOCKED" flashes on the screen, with a big arrow pointing at the door. Stuff like that...
The killer is called "The Breather" and pants like a dehydrated dog, which then becomes near-athsmatic wheezings, all the while tracking and killing virtually anyone who has sex. Red herrings abound, obvious suspects killed, The Breather j-oing in a locker room while he stares at nubile coeds, a couple references to the real cause of death being swine flu (!?!), bizarre uses of the deus ex machina plot device and then, at the very end, the cliched "it was all a dream", followed by a real twist! At 80 minutes and change, this movie stays just long enough and leaves before wearing out its welcome.
Intentionally or not, Student Bodies was quite prescient. I can't believe how much so many later films have "borrowed" from this, yet it remains relatively unknown. If you are a fan of any of the aforementioned films, you'll do well to check this out; even if you're not a fan, or are unfamiliar with them, you could do far worse for some mindless fun and surprisingly original humour.
So goes the line on the front of the DVD box. Now, I'm not one of those who believe that Scream killed horror, or at least serious horror. I love Scream; even moreso what is essentially its pilot run in Wes Craven's earlier film New Nightmare. So I was intrigued by Student Bodies, this film from 1981 that claimed to be the original Scream. In fact, it is much closer in spirit to Airplane, The Naked Gun, or the Scary Movie series, and surprisingly funny at that.
Not much of a horror, Student Bodies uses the late '70s/early '80s genre leanings to maximum comic effect; the opening scene is a medium shot of a house exterior with the word "Halloween" appearing at the bottom of the screen....cue creepy music. And then, the screen goes black. The same exterior appears a second later, the title at the bottom of the screen now says "Friday the 13th"...cue creepy music. Again, fade to black. A second later, same shot, but the title now says "Jamie Lee Curtis' Birthday"...cue creepy music. Ha! Then we go inside, where a scene very similar to the opening of Scream takes place, a girl answers the phone, heavy breathing ensues, repeat... Then she hears a weird noise and goes outside to check on it, but when she comes back in, she leaves the door unlocked. The camera zooms in on this soon-to-be fatal error and the word "UNLOCKED" flashes on the screen, with a big arrow pointing at the door. Stuff like that...
The killer is called "The Breather" and pants like a dehydrated dog, which then becomes near-athsmatic wheezings, all the while tracking and killing virtually anyone who has sex. Red herrings abound, obvious suspects killed, The Breather j-oing in a locker room while he stares at nubile coeds, a couple references to the real cause of death being swine flu (!?!), bizarre uses of the deus ex machina plot device and then, at the very end, the cliched "it was all a dream", followed by a real twist! At 80 minutes and change, this movie stays just long enough and leaves before wearing out its welcome.
Intentionally or not, Student Bodies was quite prescient. I can't believe how much so many later films have "borrowed" from this, yet it remains relatively unknown. If you are a fan of any of the aforementioned films, you'll do well to check this out; even if you're not a fan, or are unfamiliar with them, you could do far worse for some mindless fun and surprisingly original humour.
10.18.2009
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Halloween 2, part 9: DEAD BY DAWN
Last night/this morning was the second annual Dusk 'til Dawn Horror Film Fest held at Mrs. and Mr. Coelacanth's cobwebbed cavern. Another smashing success, though I've still gotta figure out a way to make it to the very end. I crashed at about 4 and a handful of crepuscular fiends stuck around for one last film, finally clearing out around 5:45, just as the sky began to lighten. I truly pity those that had to work today.
Thanks so much to all who came over throughout the night: Emily, Mark, Sophia, Jen R., Katie, Tom, Graham, Nick, Kendall, Kris, Amanda, Joey - YOU guys bring the party.
A sickening, bloody, hilarious lineup of films was slated for this year, and we got through Kill, Baby...Kill!, Murder Party, From Beyond, Basket Case, New Nightmare, and finally, Frankenhooker, whose DVD box bears the encouraging quip from none other than Bill Murray: "If you only see one movie this year it should be Frankenhooker." Two Henenlotter films in one night? Insanity!
Thanks again to everyone who came, and especially to Byn, the hostess with the mostest, who kept the films rolling after I had shut my eyes for the night. Until next year...
Thanks so much to all who came over throughout the night: Emily, Mark, Sophia, Jen R., Katie, Tom, Graham, Nick, Kendall, Kris, Amanda, Joey - YOU guys bring the party.
A sickening, bloody, hilarious lineup of films was slated for this year, and we got through Kill, Baby...Kill!, Murder Party, From Beyond, Basket Case, New Nightmare, and finally, Frankenhooker, whose DVD box bears the encouraging quip from none other than Bill Murray: "If you only see one movie this year it should be Frankenhooker." Two Henenlotter films in one night? Insanity!
Thanks again to everyone who came, and especially to Byn, the hostess with the mostest, who kept the films rolling after I had shut my eyes for the night. Until next year...
Welcome to Hell
The first guest. Starting them early. Enjoying Bava's Kill, Baby...Kill!
Pumpkin cupcakes with black icing (looks purple here) - the cause of much humour and sustenance throughout the night.
Da Couch Crew
No shirt, black teeth, photobomb
Enthralled by From Beyond
A cheery group
DGJL
Crazy as a fox
Pizza's here! Oh fick, there's meat on it? Sorry for the mistake, Mot...
Well-timed food delivery. Joey loves it, Kris is nonplussed.
Delirium sets in...
Say goodnight.
10.16.2009
Its-beginning-to-look-lot-like-someone-else-should-pick-my-TV-viewing
I was trolling for a new series to sink my teeth into for a week or two and noticed Harper's Island up on the new TV wall earlier today. The general storyline has a wedding party and their guests tying the knot on an island off the coast of Seattle where years earlier a serial killer had murdered 7 people. Being in the mood for some more PG-rated Halloween fare, I thought I'd give it a try.
Mistake.
This CBS network series is nearly, nay ….completely unwatchable. I recalled the Richard E. Grant character in Altman's The Player who, if you remember, pitched a chilling, realistic film drama about an attorney who doesn't get to the prison in time to save the woman he loves from the death penalty. It was imperative to Grant's scriptwriter character that the film have no-name actors and remain true to his convictions. In the end, Bruce Willis shoots the glass in the death chamber, saves Julia Roberts at the last minute and utters some inane line like, “Sorry I'm late, traffic was a bitch.”
I imagine that happening to Harper's Island. The premise is nifty and has tons of potential. At it's core, the series is a train movie, and by that I mean it uses the very common narrative device of isolating the characters from any possible rescue or escape (think trains, planes, asylums, old dark houses, skyscrapers, the woods, or in this case, an island, etc.) Considering how often this plot device is used successfully (off the top of my head, The Shining, every train and plane thriller ever made, Die Hard, Carpenter's The Thing and Assault on Precinct 13 to cite two from Joe's earlier post, The Most Dangerous Game, Alien, and the list goes on and on), you have to work pretty hard to fuck it up - enter Harper's Island. The BSG series is a variation on this same device as is Drag Me To Hell (at least, metaphorically if you think about it) Deny escape and you build tension. Surely to God, someone noticed how awful this was when they ran the dailies?
Harper's Island is instead a terrible amalgam of Lost (it even has similar looking characters, including a fat, hairy guy) and any of a dozen MTV/The WB-produced series' that have endless stick-thin supermodels in 4 inch stilettos uttering mindless twaddle instead of real dialogue. It's a paste-together, cross-genre mosaic of other existing network programming and it simply doesn't work on any level, including the so-bad-it's-great escape hatch. Oddly, it could have been great, had no one who was involved in its production been asked in the first place. No, this show could have been Twin Peaks II, but instead it's The Hills on the Island of Dr. Gilligan by way of the O.C. meets a G-rated Ghostship. Lip Gloss horror-light in a nutshell.
Save yourself and do not take this 13 hour cruise....
….this 13 hour cruise.
Sporgey.
Mistake.
This CBS network series is nearly, nay ….completely unwatchable. I recalled the Richard E. Grant character in Altman's The Player who, if you remember, pitched a chilling, realistic film drama about an attorney who doesn't get to the prison in time to save the woman he loves from the death penalty. It was imperative to Grant's scriptwriter character that the film have no-name actors and remain true to his convictions. In the end, Bruce Willis shoots the glass in the death chamber, saves Julia Roberts at the last minute and utters some inane line like, “Sorry I'm late, traffic was a bitch.”
I imagine that happening to Harper's Island. The premise is nifty and has tons of potential. At it's core, the series is a train movie, and by that I mean it uses the very common narrative device of isolating the characters from any possible rescue or escape (think trains, planes, asylums, old dark houses, skyscrapers, the woods, or in this case, an island, etc.) Considering how often this plot device is used successfully (off the top of my head, The Shining, every train and plane thriller ever made, Die Hard, Carpenter's The Thing and Assault on Precinct 13 to cite two from Joe's earlier post, The Most Dangerous Game, Alien, and the list goes on and on), you have to work pretty hard to fuck it up - enter Harper's Island. The BSG series is a variation on this same device as is Drag Me To Hell (at least, metaphorically if you think about it) Deny escape and you build tension. Surely to God, someone noticed how awful this was when they ran the dailies?
Harper's Island is instead a terrible amalgam of Lost (it even has similar looking characters, including a fat, hairy guy) and any of a dozen MTV/The WB-produced series' that have endless stick-thin supermodels in 4 inch stilettos uttering mindless twaddle instead of real dialogue. It's a paste-together, cross-genre mosaic of other existing network programming and it simply doesn't work on any level, including the so-bad-it's-great escape hatch. Oddly, it could have been great, had no one who was involved in its production been asked in the first place. No, this show could have been Twin Peaks II, but instead it's The Hills on the Island of Dr. Gilligan by way of the O.C. meets a G-rated Ghostship. Lip Gloss horror-light in a nutshell.
Save yourself and do not take this 13 hour cruise....
….this 13 hour cruise.
Sporgey.
10.15.2009
It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Halloween 2, part 7: In The Mouth of Madness (1994)
"Do you read Sutter Cane?"
What is my favourite John Carpenter film, you don't ask? That's a tough one, as there are so many. I could maybe give my top 5, in no particular order: Halloween, The Fog, Big Trouble in Little China, The Thing, They Live, and In the Mouth of Madness. And that's excluding many worthy also-rans like Escape From New York, Assault on Precinct 13, Christine, Prince of Darkness, etc... As you can see, picking a favourite is tough. But I will say this - the film I have watched the most (disqualifying Halloween, which I watch almost every fall as a tradition) is In the Mouth of Madness, if that means anything. I think I've seen it about half a dozen times, and it keeps beckoning me to return as the days grow shorter and the sun turns tea-weak through slate clouds. Roughly once a year, sometimes more, something calls me back to Hobb's end. Something old, dark, and wet.
The final film in Carpenter's supposed "Doomsday Trilogy" (The Thing being number one and Prince of Darkness being number two), ITMOM revolves around hack horror writer Sutter Cane (Jurgen Prochnow, who we don't see until about halfway through the film), whose work bears no small resemblance to Stephen King. Cane's work is massively popular, more popular than King or even the Bible, we are told. Thing is, Cane has gone missing, and his latest work is having very strange effect on readers (almost everyone), driving them to madness, mayhem, and murder (hey, if you're invoking hack writers, you've got to use that most hakneyed of hack devices, alliteration). Enter John Trent (Sam "God Among Men" Neill), an insurance fraud investigator, who has been contracted by Cane's publishing firm to find the missing author. Trent is accompanied by Linda Styles, Cane's editor, and they set out to find the fictional Hobb's End, some quaint New England town that isn't supposed to exist except for in Cane's fiction. Problem is, they find it; Hobb's End harbours some dark secrets and is anything but Main St. USA.
Carpenter does a masterful job of reigning in the various aspects of the story to keep it from becoming too confusing - there are quite an array of ideas on display here, and if you remove the slimy things which crawl out of the black pit in the church (very nice tip of the Lovecraft's Old Ones), and the couple of hatchet jobs (literally) that occur in town, you'd still find yourself dealing with a very darkly comic existentialist apocalypse horror.
As always with Carpenter, the practical special effects are top notch, and the director's own throbbing-synth score is fantastic. Prochnow and Neill are worthy foils and Charlton Heston does a superb job as Cane's befuddled publisher. And keep an eye out for many of the locations, as the film was shot in and around Toronto (most notably, the RC Harris filtration plant, doubling as an insane asylum here).
Carpenter had played with Lovecraftian ideals before (most notably in The Thing), but never so obviously as he does in ITMOM. While Cane can be seen as King (or King-like), he is also operating very much within the Lovecraft mode. And, though I can't remember the exact quotation, I'm pretty certain Cane actually says "the Old Ones" at one point, or something very similar. With that in mind, the structure of the film is deceptively complex. Sure, the "story-within-a-story" thing has been done before, but Carpenter masterfully weaves the fiction with the reality (still fiction, as it is the film itself), and with a bit of suspension of disbelief, the viewer is led to believe that what is happening onscreen is happening in the real world, outside the cinema. Of course, it is less believable now, as the film and its decor have dated somewhat, but still, there is a complexity in the film that I have not found in any other of Carpenter's oeuvre (though he mildly flirted with similar concepts in his too brief, but highly enjoyable, Masters of Horror entry Cigarette Burns). In this regard, ITMOM is certainly not to the same league as something like Synechdoche, New York, but they're playing the same game.
A thought-provoking and immensely re-watchable (not to mention quotable) film, I think that for me, ITMOM is, if not my favourite Carpenter film, his most accomplished and prescient work. It marries the visceral impact of The Thing and the arcane sci-religion of Prince of Darkness and emerges as a powerful and whole work. I only watched it a week ago, and something has me wanting to pop it in again right now, if only to remind myself, as one character in the film wearily and portentously utters seconds before eating the barrels of a shotgun, "reality is not what it used to be".
What is my favourite John Carpenter film, you don't ask? That's a tough one, as there are so many. I could maybe give my top 5, in no particular order: Halloween, The Fog, Big Trouble in Little China, The Thing, They Live, and In the Mouth of Madness. And that's excluding many worthy also-rans like Escape From New York, Assault on Precinct 13, Christine, Prince of Darkness, etc... As you can see, picking a favourite is tough. But I will say this - the film I have watched the most (disqualifying Halloween, which I watch almost every fall as a tradition) is In the Mouth of Madness, if that means anything. I think I've seen it about half a dozen times, and it keeps beckoning me to return as the days grow shorter and the sun turns tea-weak through slate clouds. Roughly once a year, sometimes more, something calls me back to Hobb's end. Something old, dark, and wet.
The final film in Carpenter's supposed "Doomsday Trilogy" (The Thing being number one and Prince of Darkness being number two), ITMOM revolves around hack horror writer Sutter Cane (Jurgen Prochnow, who we don't see until about halfway through the film), whose work bears no small resemblance to Stephen King. Cane's work is massively popular, more popular than King or even the Bible, we are told. Thing is, Cane has gone missing, and his latest work is having very strange effect on readers (almost everyone), driving them to madness, mayhem, and murder (hey, if you're invoking hack writers, you've got to use that most hakneyed of hack devices, alliteration). Enter John Trent (Sam "God Among Men" Neill), an insurance fraud investigator, who has been contracted by Cane's publishing firm to find the missing author. Trent is accompanied by Linda Styles, Cane's editor, and they set out to find the fictional Hobb's End, some quaint New England town that isn't supposed to exist except for in Cane's fiction. Problem is, they find it; Hobb's End harbours some dark secrets and is anything but Main St. USA.
Carpenter does a masterful job of reigning in the various aspects of the story to keep it from becoming too confusing - there are quite an array of ideas on display here, and if you remove the slimy things which crawl out of the black pit in the church (very nice tip of the Lovecraft's Old Ones), and the couple of hatchet jobs (literally) that occur in town, you'd still find yourself dealing with a very darkly comic existentialist apocalypse horror.
As always with Carpenter, the practical special effects are top notch, and the director's own throbbing-synth score is fantastic. Prochnow and Neill are worthy foils and Charlton Heston does a superb job as Cane's befuddled publisher. And keep an eye out for many of the locations, as the film was shot in and around Toronto (most notably, the RC Harris filtration plant, doubling as an insane asylum here).
Carpenter had played with Lovecraftian ideals before (most notably in The Thing), but never so obviously as he does in ITMOM. While Cane can be seen as King (or King-like), he is also operating very much within the Lovecraft mode. And, though I can't remember the exact quotation, I'm pretty certain Cane actually says "the Old Ones" at one point, or something very similar. With that in mind, the structure of the film is deceptively complex. Sure, the "story-within-a-story" thing has been done before, but Carpenter masterfully weaves the fiction with the reality (still fiction, as it is the film itself), and with a bit of suspension of disbelief, the viewer is led to believe that what is happening onscreen is happening in the real world, outside the cinema. Of course, it is less believable now, as the film and its decor have dated somewhat, but still, there is a complexity in the film that I have not found in any other of Carpenter's oeuvre (though he mildly flirted with similar concepts in his too brief, but highly enjoyable, Masters of Horror entry Cigarette Burns). In this regard, ITMOM is certainly not to the same league as something like Synechdoche, New York, but they're playing the same game.
A thought-provoking and immensely re-watchable (not to mention quotable) film, I think that for me, ITMOM is, if not my favourite Carpenter film, his most accomplished and prescient work. It marries the visceral impact of The Thing and the arcane sci-religion of Prince of Darkness and emerges as a powerful and whole work. I only watched it a week ago, and something has me wanting to pop it in again right now, if only to remind myself, as one character in the film wearily and portentously utters seconds before eating the barrels of a shotgun, "reality is not what it used to be".
10.11.2009
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Halloween 2, part 6: Thanksgiving
A special holiday interlude for all you would-be turkey/knob gobblers out there. I really hope someday Eli Roth makes this real.
10.04.2009
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Halloween 2, part 5: The Wolf Man (1941)
Named part 5 because, although he chose not to title it such, I believe Scott's Mephisto Waltz/Images post was part of this whole spooky thing (and I tagged it accordingly). Anyway - The Wolf Man! You know the Wolf Man. You love the Wolf Man. You, like me, are even slightly excited for the upcoming "reimagining".
It's been a long time - too long - since I've watched this film, so I decided to throw it on tonight. And it paid off in spades; unlike some of the other Universal monster films, The Wolf Man has not dated at all. It seems fresh as a daisy. And I found many interesting things about this particular film that I had never noticed before....
The Wolf Man, unlike any other of the Universal monsters, is both the man and the beast. Frankenstein's monster, Dracula, the Mummy - these are all solely creatures, given over to evil, with no semblance of the man left, merely the monster. But the Wolf Man is a man by day and a monster by night. The story is both timely and timeless.
This tale is played out much less like a modern horror fable, but references mysteries of the time, something like Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles, even down to the fog shrouded woods.
There is something strange in the casting of Claude Rains (of The Invisible Man fame), for he appears in the film as almost a contemporary of Lon Chaney Jr., even though they are supposed to be father and son. Clearly, Universal was trying to cash in on the marquee billing of Rains. What is even more interesting is that Rains acts circles around Chaney to the point where their scenes together feel almost awkward, as if John Gielgud was alongside Adam Sandler.
However, there is a very curious and appealing quality about Chaney; although his acting chops are laughable, there is a strange feeling to his role that is almost indescribable. We see two Chaney's on screen, the ACTOR, and LON CHANEY, Jr., at this point deep into his battle with alcoholism. The actor is superficial, and through this gauzy scrim we see the real man, his desperation and sadness; I can't be entirely certain that the director/producers cast him for this reason, but these are the perfect characteristics of the Wolf Man. The man who, through no fault of his own, is bound to a fatal course. The man who, merely because the sun rises and sets with each day, is transformed from a gentleman into a monster. The dual man. The natural man. This is what is fascinating about the Wolf Man - it is an elemental tale in the way that no other Universal monster story is; Dracula and The Mummy deal with the supernatural; Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, and The Creature speak of science gone awry; but the Wolf Man...the Wolf Man - the primal beast, the two-sided man - is rooted in nature, and is therefore real.
Believe in the myth or not, but, as Rains says in the film, "All legends have their basis in fact". Whether it is physically possible for a man to turn into a wolf is up for debate. But believe that every person has the wolf within, and whether or not this becomes physically manifest, the fact is the animal remains, waiting to be unleashed. This, for me, is Universal's crowning achievement in the "monster" genre - sure, Dracula is sexier, The Mummy and the Creature are more terrifying, Frankenstein's monster and the Invisible Man are more fantastic, but the Wolf Man is real. And it is no small coincidence that I watched this film on the night of the full moon...Awoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!
It's been a long time - too long - since I've watched this film, so I decided to throw it on tonight. And it paid off in spades; unlike some of the other Universal monster films, The Wolf Man has not dated at all. It seems fresh as a daisy. And I found many interesting things about this particular film that I had never noticed before....
The Wolf Man, unlike any other of the Universal monsters, is both the man and the beast. Frankenstein's monster, Dracula, the Mummy - these are all solely creatures, given over to evil, with no semblance of the man left, merely the monster. But the Wolf Man is a man by day and a monster by night. The story is both timely and timeless.
This tale is played out much less like a modern horror fable, but references mysteries of the time, something like Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles, even down to the fog shrouded woods.
There is something strange in the casting of Claude Rains (of The Invisible Man fame), for he appears in the film as almost a contemporary of Lon Chaney Jr., even though they are supposed to be father and son. Clearly, Universal was trying to cash in on the marquee billing of Rains. What is even more interesting is that Rains acts circles around Chaney to the point where their scenes together feel almost awkward, as if John Gielgud was alongside Adam Sandler.
However, there is a very curious and appealing quality about Chaney; although his acting chops are laughable, there is a strange feeling to his role that is almost indescribable. We see two Chaney's on screen, the ACTOR, and LON CHANEY, Jr., at this point deep into his battle with alcoholism. The actor is superficial, and through this gauzy scrim we see the real man, his desperation and sadness; I can't be entirely certain that the director/producers cast him for this reason, but these are the perfect characteristics of the Wolf Man. The man who, through no fault of his own, is bound to a fatal course. The man who, merely because the sun rises and sets with each day, is transformed from a gentleman into a monster. The dual man. The natural man. This is what is fascinating about the Wolf Man - it is an elemental tale in the way that no other Universal monster story is; Dracula and The Mummy deal with the supernatural; Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, and The Creature speak of science gone awry; but the Wolf Man...the Wolf Man - the primal beast, the two-sided man - is rooted in nature, and is therefore real.
Believe in the myth or not, but, as Rains says in the film, "All legends have their basis in fact". Whether it is physically possible for a man to turn into a wolf is up for debate. But believe that every person has the wolf within, and whether or not this becomes physically manifest, the fact is the animal remains, waiting to be unleashed. This, for me, is Universal's crowning achievement in the "monster" genre - sure, Dracula is sexier, The Mummy and the Creature are more terrifying, Frankenstein's monster and the Invisible Man are more fantastic, but the Wolf Man is real. And it is no small coincidence that I watched this film on the night of the full moon...Awoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!
10.01.2009
Yet again, it's beginning to get repetitive around here once more
No hatchets in foreheads, buzzsaws lopping torsos in half, or bloody teeth removed with Vise-grips but rather than be regulated to the sidelines for a month while you two drone on about horror films (yet again), I'm offering up a double-bill of trippy '70s flicks that creeped me out back when your parents were still feeling each other up in the back of the AMC Pinto.
First up – The Mephisto Waltz starring Alan Alda from 1971. I've never been able to forget this spooky little Rosemary's Baby derivative and can't quite explain why. An dying concert pianist does a fancy Satanic two-step and transfers his being to a young Alan Alda (a la Faust, forget it.... it's a reading thing). Alda's young wife notices a sudden improvement in the bedroom area as the elder spirit enjoys the fruits of his soul-transference-Viagra labour and her formerly hapless husband becomes a much-more-aggressive lover and a better peni.... sorry, pianist.
Although critically lambasted on it's original release, this film has everything a Halloween movie ought to: kooky dream sequences replete with odd camera angles and Vaseline lens dollops, a healthy helping of Satanic ritual and incantation, creepy acid-classical music, bizarro murders and body exchanges managed with a small dab of blue oil on the noggin'. There's lots of lurid and illicit sexual encounters with just enough exposed flesh to keep it off late-night TV. This one is buried on a double bill with something called The House on Skull Mountain in the FBW's extensive and unnecessary horror collection.
The bottom half of the bill is a terrific and nearly unknown film by Robert Altman called Images from 1972 (considered a “lost film” as the studio destroyed the negatives after a dismal showing to confused audiences on its original theatrical release. It played to mixed reviews at both Cannes and The New York Film Festival). A print obviously survived and was briefly released on DVD (sadly, I never noticed) but we've got a good quality copy in The Black Vault.
Images is really Susannah York's movie. She wrote the book that it is based on and stars in the lead role (best actress at Cannes, so the film didn't go entirely unnoticed). It is also one of the most beautifully shot films I've ever seen and may play better today than it did on its original release. The plot has a schizophrenic writer seeing apparitions that may or may not be real. There is a sexual guilt/infidelity angle that is most definitely a product of the era and the film's histrionics need to be forgiven in this regard but this is a terrifying descent into madness, hallucination and sexual oblivion. In a way, this one is a bit of a precursor to Kubrick's The Shining with enough thematic overlap to assume something in the film inspired Stanley.
Both of these films are less horror than haunting, more unsettling rather than jarring but it is this quality that makes them effective and scary. They are the kind of films that don't particularly make you jump but instead seep into your head and drip little angst-nuggets into your subconscious for days afterward.
Just like talking to Jules.
Von Sporgenstein.
First up – The Mephisto Waltz starring Alan Alda from 1971. I've never been able to forget this spooky little Rosemary's Baby derivative and can't quite explain why. An dying concert pianist does a fancy Satanic two-step and transfers his being to a young Alan Alda (a la Faust, forget it.... it's a reading thing). Alda's young wife notices a sudden improvement in the bedroom area as the elder spirit enjoys the fruits of his soul-transference-Viagra labour and her formerly hapless husband becomes a much-more-aggressive lover and a better peni.... sorry, pianist.
Although critically lambasted on it's original release, this film has everything a Halloween movie ought to: kooky dream sequences replete with odd camera angles and Vaseline lens dollops, a healthy helping of Satanic ritual and incantation, creepy acid-classical music, bizarro murders and body exchanges managed with a small dab of blue oil on the noggin'. There's lots of lurid and illicit sexual encounters with just enough exposed flesh to keep it off late-night TV. This one is buried on a double bill with something called The House on Skull Mountain in the FBW's extensive and unnecessary horror collection.
The bottom half of the bill is a terrific and nearly unknown film by Robert Altman called Images from 1972 (considered a “lost film” as the studio destroyed the negatives after a dismal showing to confused audiences on its original theatrical release. It played to mixed reviews at both Cannes and The New York Film Festival). A print obviously survived and was briefly released on DVD (sadly, I never noticed) but we've got a good quality copy in The Black Vault.
Images is really Susannah York's movie. She wrote the book that it is based on and stars in the lead role (best actress at Cannes, so the film didn't go entirely unnoticed). It is also one of the most beautifully shot films I've ever seen and may play better today than it did on its original release. The plot has a schizophrenic writer seeing apparitions that may or may not be real. There is a sexual guilt/infidelity angle that is most definitely a product of the era and the film's histrionics need to be forgiven in this regard but this is a terrifying descent into madness, hallucination and sexual oblivion. In a way, this one is a bit of a precursor to Kubrick's The Shining with enough thematic overlap to assume something in the film inspired Stanley.
Both of these films are less horror than haunting, more unsettling rather than jarring but it is this quality that makes them effective and scary. They are the kind of films that don't particularly make you jump but instead seep into your head and drip little angst-nuggets into your subconscious for days afterward.
Just like talking to Jules.
Von Sporgenstein.
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Halloween 2, part 3: Shutter (2004)
Boooooooring! Not to be confused with the 2008 American remake (although maybe it should be), Shutter is a dud. Sorry, perhaps I'm being unfair, or insensitive, but there comes a point when "subtle" and "deliberate" become "non-existent" and "slower than molasses". It seems like I'm in the minority in disliking this one, as it gets pretty positive reviews on all the usual online haunts, but I just couldn't get into it. Slow moving (not always a bad thing, but in this case, a very bad thing), only a few mild shocks along the way, and the "big" payoff at the end feels tacked on.
Shutter has neither the incredibly terrifying scares of Ju-on or Ringu (at the time - they've become neutered by incessant mimicry over the past few years), nor the slow burn intensity and creeping dread of Gin gwai or Kairo. The filmmakers botch what seems like a cool concept, even if the whole "I see dead people" thing had already been kicking around for half a decade. It shows that Shutter was made two years after the most recent of those films listed, as it tries to get ponderous and serious with the filmic device that by that time had been done to death, and more importantly, one that got its power from viscerally preying on the audience's senses and mucking around with their primal fears.
There is far better Asian horror out there, and you're well off starting with any of the titles above if you haven't yet seen them. Even Kid the Kobbler braved a near-fatal bike crash to get to the NA premiere of Ju-on at Fantasia all those years ago, so you've got no excuse. If you've been living under a cock for the past seven years, please go watch Ju-on now; it will make you cry. As for Shutter....shudder (sorry, that was retarded).
Shutter has neither the incredibly terrifying scares of Ju-on or Ringu (at the time - they've become neutered by incessant mimicry over the past few years), nor the slow burn intensity and creeping dread of Gin gwai or Kairo. The filmmakers botch what seems like a cool concept, even if the whole "I see dead people" thing had already been kicking around for half a decade. It shows that Shutter was made two years after the most recent of those films listed, as it tries to get ponderous and serious with the filmic device that by that time had been done to death, and more importantly, one that got its power from viscerally preying on the audience's senses and mucking around with their primal fears.
There is far better Asian horror out there, and you're well off starting with any of the titles above if you haven't yet seen them. Even Kid the Kobbler braved a near-fatal bike crash to get to the NA premiere of Ju-on at Fantasia all those years ago, so you've got no excuse. If you've been living under a cock for the past seven years, please go watch Ju-on now; it will make you cry. As for Shutter....shudder (sorry, that was retarded).
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Halloween 2, part 2: The Masque of the Red Death (1964)
I am ashamed to admit that, until today, I had not seen this American International Poe/Corman/Price vehicle. It's been in my collection, unopened, for awhile now, so I thought, "why not today?" and popped it on. I wasn't disappointed.
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The tale told is one of extravagance, bacchanalia, indulgence in earthly pleasures. In The Masque of the Red Death, Price stars as Prince Prospero, and he gathers his favoured friends in his castle to enjoy his hospitality, to safeguard against the titular plague which is ravaging the surrounding countryside and laying waste to the peasantry that serve the prince, and basically, to party like it's 1399. At one point, several of the peasants try to gain access to the castle, fleeing from the death and the bitter winds that signal the encroaching winter nipping at their heels. Prospero simply gives the command to his archers to fire upon the pleading plebes. That's the kinda guy he is. I won't spoil it but to say that Vinny gets his in the wonderfully heavy and gruesome end (as is standard in these Poe/Corman/Price pix, so it's no spoiler at all, really).
Price is at his most sadistic in this meaty role (certainly rivalling his Matthew Hopkins portrayal in Witchfinder General), and with some inspired direction from Corman, this one is not to be missed. There are some truly stunning set pieces, and the uber-dramatic lighting presages similar techniques used 13 years later by Dario Argento in the brilliant Suspiria. Intriguingly, the gorgeously stylized and vivid cinematography comes to us courtesy of then-lensman, soon to be arthouse darling, Nicolas Roeg. The script feels at times a bit disjointed, but I suppose that's a result of the film being a conflation of two Poe tales. Though it drags a bit here and there, it always picks up speed again just when you are beginning to lose interest. And look for the cheeky (pun intended) appearance by a raven at one point. The way that the red death is envisioned by Corman is very unique, and the final counsel of the Deaths is both frankly humourous and ponderously chilling.
I'm a sucker for gothic horror, and for Price, but I don't think I've got the blinders on when I say this is one of the better Poe-to-screen adaptations. While my favourite still remains Witchfinder General, there are a bunch I've yet to see. But really, how can you not love a film that features both an explicitly Satan-worshiping Price and a dwarf jester named Hop Toad? EEEEK, I adore it! A great film to kick off the season of the witch...
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Price is at his most sadistic in this meaty role (certainly rivalling his Matthew Hopkins portrayal in Witchfinder General), and with some inspired direction from Corman, this one is not to be missed. There are some truly stunning set pieces, and the uber-dramatic lighting presages similar techniques used 13 years later by Dario Argento in the brilliant Suspiria. Intriguingly, the gorgeously stylized and vivid cinematography comes to us courtesy of then-lensman, soon to be arthouse darling, Nicolas Roeg. The script feels at times a bit disjointed, but I suppose that's a result of the film being a conflation of two Poe tales. Though it drags a bit here and there, it always picks up speed again just when you are beginning to lose interest. And look for the cheeky (pun intended) appearance by a raven at one point. The way that the red death is envisioned by Corman is very unique, and the final counsel of the Deaths is both frankly humourous and ponderously chilling.
I'm a sucker for gothic horror, and for Price, but I don't think I've got the blinders on when I say this is one of the better Poe-to-screen adaptations. While my favourite still remains Witchfinder General, there are a bunch I've yet to see. But really, how can you not love a film that features both an explicitly Satan-worshiping Price and a dwarf jester named Hop Toad? EEEEK, I adore it! A great film to kick off the season of the witch...
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Hallowe'en 2 - part 1. The Dead Zone (1983)
I've decided to kick things off this Hallowe'en season with a classic of sorts.Stephen King's Dead Zone directed by David Cronenberg, is a supernatural thriller that isn't exceptionally thrilling and it only boarders on being a horror film.
It is, however, an exceptionally well made and entertaining film.
Christopher Walken plays Johnny Smith (really?), a high school teacher who gets a headache on The Great Canadian Minebuster and then drives his girlfriend home. He turns her offer of coitus down, kisses her goodnight and drives on his way home home only to drive smack into the middle of a milk truck.
Johnny wakes up from a coma five years later to find that his girlfriend is now married to another man and has a child.... oh and if he touches you he gets visions, mostly pertaining to your forecoming death. The idea being his five year coma brought him close enough to death that he could see things. Catch is whenever he uses his "gift" he feels like he's dying a little more inside, as told dramatically as only Walken could deliver it.
Filmed mostly in the GTA and surrounding areas in Ontario during the dead of winter the film carries a deathly but beautiful ambiance. Cronenberg utilizes the harshness of winter to make his scenes feel crisp and photographs it like a Canadian can, gorgeously.
The story was slower than i hoped it would be. After watching Dario Argento's Inferno i had a blood lust in me that needed to be fulled and sadly The Dead Zone didn't deliver the goods in that department. It was also unlike everything else Cronenberg was doing at the time which threw me off. This wasn't a body horror gore fest, it felt more like today's Cronenberg. i guess it's like a hybrid of Videodrome Cronenberg and Eastern Promises Cronenberg, somewhere in the middle.
Still, Christopher Walken as a limping wild haired psychic is just too much fun to pass up. I'm I the only one who can't help but laugh when the man gets over the top dramatic? In one scene Walken is trying to warn a man of the consequences that await him if he takes his son to ice hockey practice on the local lake, when the man dismisses Walken he takes his cane, smashes everything around him and yells "THE ICE.... IT'S GOING TO BREAK!" In that broken silly manner we've all come to love. I couldn't help but skip back to that bit a few times and chuckle it up.An also great, but too small of a, turn by Martin Sheen as crooked politician Greg Stillson.
All in all, The Dead Zone wasn't particularly what i expected but it turned out to be a great experience all the same. A beautifully shot, quiet, supernatural story with a lot of heart.
Oh, and the music was just fantastic.
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